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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Feature Focus – Multitasking

Multitasking is an important feature of our Android smartphones and tablets that we’ve all come to appreciate. While multitasking generally involves the ability to easily switch between the various apps that you may be using, Samsung as always, manages to pack a lot more than the norm into their devices, with their current flagships coming with multitasking features such as multi-window, floating apps, and a revamped Recent Apps screen. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the various ways to easily multitask on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4!

Multi-window is a familiar feature for anyone who has used a Galaxy Note smartphone before, and is also one of the most useful. Pressing and holding the capacitive back button opens up the list of applications that are compatible with the Multi-window feature, and it’s great to see that the list has been growing from iteration to iteration. Hold and drag the applications you want to use, placing them at the top and bottom depending on your convenience, and that’s how easy it is.

Now, an easier way to access the Multi-window feature is through the Recent Apps screen, that can be opened by pressing the capacitive Recent Apps button on the left of the physical home button. The Recent Apps screen itself has received a makeover, taking on a card motif, making it easier to scroll through, and swipe away apps you aren’t using. This makes one of the main ways to use multi-tasking a lot smoother as well. Each card now also comes with a multi-window shortcut icon. Tapping the icon opens up a list of apps that were most recently used with this feature, and swiping to the right gives you the full list of apps that are compatible with multi-window.

When using multi-window, a menu in the middle gives you the option to switch windows to move content from one to the other, to collapse the window, expand it to be the only one on the screen, and to close the application. Choosing to collapse the window makes it a floating head that you can move around. Tapping the floating head opens up a floating window, which is another great option to multitask with the apps that can be used with multi-window. You can also drag the floating window and put it back into a dual window setup.

Creating floating windows or also very easy. Open the list of apps by pressing and holding the back button, and instead of holding and dragging, just tapping on an application will open it in a floating window. This gives you the option to open multiple apps at the same time, and from there, you can create floating heads for each of the apps that you want, making it very easy access apps that you use often.

The final way to multitask is when you have a single app open, you can drag from the top right corner to make it a floating window. This is another way to create floating windows, instead of accessing the multi-window menu, or from the list of apps. From here, you can of course, go back to all the other modes of multitasking easily and seamlessly.

If you weren’t a fan of the multitasking options on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, then features like the floating head and windows isn’t something you may use. But what is great about multitasking on the Galaxy Note 4 is how much easier it is, with various options to open, close, and switch between the various compatible apps. The list of apps is also always growing, with the ones users most often use already available.

So there you have it – a closer look at multitasking on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4! Stay tuned as we continue to bring you more coverage of the Galaxy Note 4, including the upcoming comprehensive review!

Writer, blogger, and videographer - Josh is a former support technician that learned much about technology by fixing everyone else's. On the side, he wrote and performed spoken word, maintained his own personal blogs, and began his own video podcast. Now, he's here at Android Authority looking to put it all together!